Saturday, November 7, 2009

Wittgenstein's View of Language, Part 1

So, I know that I have failed at keeping up with this blog, but the next week or so, I'll have some stuff to post, continuing my first two posts on Wittgenstein and the philosophy of language. The posts come from a paper I'm writing for a reading course. Much of the information will also be a part of my thesis, so I would appreciate some comments, etc., in order to help me refine my thoughts.

Language for Wittgenstein, has numerous functions, which he calls “language games.”Wittgenstein says, “The word ‘language-game’ is used here to emphasize the fact that the speaking of language is part of an activity, or of a form of life.”[1]Wittgenstein gives numerous examples of possible language games:

Wittgenstein, as Nancey Murphy says, represents a shift “from concern to give a single theory of meaning for all language, to a concern to understand the multiple functions of language.”[3]

Because multiple functions of language exist, Wittgenstein argues, no proposition can have a single meaning.Rather, as Grenz and Franke point out, “Because the meaning of any statement is dependent on the context—that is, on the ‘language game’—in which it appears, any sentence has as many meanings as contexts in which it is used.”[4]So, for example, “Eat my flesh” means something different from the mouth of Jesus in John 6 than it does from the cow “that actually wanted to be eaten and was capable of saying so clearly and distinctly” in Douglas Adams’ The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.[5]

[3] Murphy, 15.That does not mean language games have nothing to do with one another.As Kerr notes, “The notion that any language-game functions in isolation from others has no basis in Wittgenstein’s work” (31; emphasis original).

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About Me

I am a 2006 graduate of Johnson University and 2010 graduate of Emmanuel Christian Seminary. I currently serve as the Associate Minister of Youth at Cenral Holston Christian Church in Bristol, TN, where I live with my wife Sherri, cats Tonks and Lupin, and dog Max. This fall I will begin a doctoral program at Wycliffe College, University of Toronto. I am a native of Pennsylvania, and thus a big fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Penguins, Pirates, and Panthers. I love TV shows like The Office, The Simpsons, and X-Files and as a drummer, my favorite band is Rush.